August 12th is Mother’s day in Thailand and Prapawadee could not have given her mom a better gift!

Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon won Thailand’s first Gold medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games AND set a new Olympic record with her lift of 126kg in the Women’s 53kg Clean and Jerk. Prapawadee started off strong and well ahead of her competitors with her first lift of 120kg. Her solid performance continued throughout which culminated in her record breaking lift of 126kg.

Her family sat in the audience and her father said he was “very happy and very proud of his daughter” as Thai televison interviewed them immediately after the competition. Her mother was too overwhelmed to speak!

South Korea’s Jinhee Yoon won Silver and Nastassia Novikava from Belarus won Bronze.

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